Obsidian's secret agent RPG unveiled

By Robert Purchese Published 11 March, 2008

Complete with girls and romance.

Obsidian has taken the wraps off secret agent role-playing game Alpha Protocol, currently in development for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Details emerged in the latest issue of Game Informer, as reported by NeoGaf forum users.

Apparently Alpha Protocol is inspired by the likes of James Bond, Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne. It puts you in the shoes of a rookie and lets you climb through the ranks to become a super-spy, pouring points into 10 skills with 10 ranks each.

You play as a chap called Michael Thornton, who probably likes chocolate and whose world is turned upside down after a mission goes awry.

Combat and gameplay will be of a real-time action bent. Expect a third-person perspective with similarities to Mass Effect and controls like BioShock, allowing you to whip out all sorts of gadgets when the going gets tough. Upgrading your powers will apparently have quite a dramatic effect too - they could alter how you perceive situations, for example.

Dialogue will also be deep and consequential like in Mass Effect, and you'll be able to choose paths according to whether you're feeling cool and suave or brash and impatient.

Your missions will take you all over the world. You'll be able to have multiple assignments at once and travel freely between them.

Romance will be an important part of the game as you meet and charm hordes of adoring women along the way.

Alpha Protocol is down for a release next spring.

SEGA Europe has offered no comment so, for now, these details are unconfirmed.

Obsidian has previously worked on sequels to BioWare games like Knights of the Old Republic II and Neverwinter Nights II. It's also helping SEGA with an Aliens RPG, although details on that are still scarce.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (13) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Lunaticorc #1 4 years ago

    This sounds great! It's about time Obsidian guys did something that isn't DnD related.

  • thefilthandthefury #2 4 years ago

    Sounds awesome! Can't wait for this one.

  • bad09 #3 4 years ago

    Cool, after Mass Effect (great game to anyone who has not played it!) I want some more western RPG action. I'm not a big RPG fan and I can't stand those JRPGs, I find them SO boring but western RPGs seem to be so more enjoyable, especially KOTOR2 so this should be good from Obsidian.

  • Apostle #4 4 years ago

    "James Bond, Jack Bauer, Jason Bourne and Jonas Blane"

    You missed one! ;)

    Jonas Blane kicks arse, definitely one of my favourite action characters.

    Sounds like a cool game, will keep an eye on this one.

  • pauleyc #5 4 years ago

    Sounds really good.

    On a related note, I wish Sid Meier would do a Covert Action sequel/remake...

  • hjarg #6 4 years ago

    Just Obsidian, please, pretty-pretty-pretty please, don't botch up the ending.

  • udat #7 4 years ago

    I hope to christ they finish this game before they release it. Then it might be superb.

  • Machetazo #8 4 years ago

    "It's also helping SEGA with an Aliens RPG, although details on that are still scarce."

    Ooh, a Shooter AND an RPG? I wasn't aware of that latter one.
    Would like to see a preview of this, after a hands-on, OR some media to get a grasp of its direction before getting enthusiastic, but it certainly sounds interesting. :)

  • AceMaCool #9 4 years ago

    This sounds like the game dreams are made of!

  • asphaltcowboy #10 4 years ago

    Sounds brilliant (particularly having just finished Mass Effect!)

    @Apostle: Good call!

  • Inigo #11 4 years ago

    Obsidian are at there best when they do more darker RPGs. It will be interesting to see the mood of this game. I'm a bit disappointed that you can't play as a girl spy.

  • Razorus #12 4 years ago

    Mreh, girl spies are always femme fatales, with leather catsuits. I don't care much for strong female characters as they annoy me with their pseudo-feminist ways. Male spies ftw.

  • Widge #13 4 years ago

    I'll give it a go. As a counter opinion, KOTOR is one of two games I have EVER sold because I have found it so utterly DIRE. The other being Sword Of Mana on the GBA SP (let down for any Secret of Mana fans).

    After a while I realised I was playing KOTOR through gritted teeth with absolutely no enjoyment, ploughing on because it was Star Wars. Even the £10 that I bought it for was too much imo. I went and traded it for the GOTY version of Morrowind and christ... THATS how it should be done!

    What was there to like?! Limited restrictive arenas, horrific dialogue with banal po-face light side responses and total pain the arse idiot dark side responses (I mean you come across as a total reject as opposed to the sinister cool of Vader from the films), uninvolved combat. At the end of it, it seemed like a training ground for the massively superior Morrowind.